Yeah, they are delivering to my house this Friday (31st) so I have to be patient and wait until the following morning before I go for a spin. Depending on what time they get here I may have the Zymol gear at the ready and spend the rest of Friday getting it looking A1 for the following morning.

Yeah, they are delivering to my house this Friday (31st) so I have to be patient and wait until the following morning before I go for a spin. Depending on what time they get here I may have the Zymol gear at the ready and spend the rest of Friday getting it looking A1 for the following morning.

well get some pics up as soon as she arrives, and dont hesitate to tell us whether the torch is in your new vehicle

Just had the Business manager on the phone, fortunately my finance which was agreed back in early July is not affected by the rise in Interest rates and payments remain unchanged. He did his best to beat my quotes from car2cover.co.uk on GAP and tyre insurance. He has offered 2 year tyre insurance for £145 (max 4 tyres no excess) which I thought was a decent price (they don't do 3 year cover for some reason!) and accepted, his GAP quote (RTI I assume)was £275 for three year cover, cheapest I got from t'internet was £210 but I think he did well seeing as he wanted £540 in Sep last year for my 320d. I think I might accept his GAP as I can do it over 12 months interest free!

I had the business manager chasing last week, but he still can't get the interest charges down low enough. He's gone down to 8.5% with some new incentive, but the deposit is also down so it doesn't save that much.

No tyre cover offered despite asking, and his RTI quote is well up on yours at £400. He did also mention that BMW shortfall is now covering up to £25k rather than only £20k as it used to be.

I had the business manager chasing last week, but he still can't get the interest charges down low enough. He's gone down to 8.5% with some new incentive, but the deposit is also down so it doesn't save that much.

No tyre cover offered despite asking, and his RTI quote is well up on yours at £400. He did also mention that BMW shortfall is now covering up to £25k rather than only £20k as it used to be.

Must admit Matt that I failed to ask him how much the RTI covered, £20K would be fine as long as it covers all factory fit options as well, I assume it must do. My interest rate is 9.5% so he is clearly making his money on the car finance as opposed to the RTI/Tyre.

I can't believe the variation on GAP prices across the various providers (online and BMW). Clearly the profit margins are high for some.

I had the business manager chasing last week, but he still can't get the interest charges down low enough. He's gone down to 8.5% with some new incentive, but the deposit is also down so it doesn't save that much.

No tyre cover offered despite asking, and his RTI quote is well up on yours at £400. He did also mention that BMW shortfall is now covering up to £25k rather than only £20k as it used to be.

Your dealers are still showing more interest than mine did.

Mine told me that they no longer offered tyre insurance .. and the GAP quote was about £650

I told them that was about 3 times the prices on the internet and their response was that their cover was 'really good, but expensive'.

Looking through a few RTI suppliers. You do have to watch the smallprint.

From Hitachi Capital Finance's exclusions:
Any loss for additional purchases at the time of purchase of the Vehicle, including but not limited to Road Fund Licence, insurance premiums, including this policy, optional extras; car mats, CD players etc

Must admit Matt that I failed to ask him how much the RTI covered, £20K would be fine as long as it covers all factory fit options as well, I assume it must do. My interest rate is 9.5% so he is clearly making his money on the car finance as opposed to the RTI/Tyre.

I can't believe the variation on GAP prices across the various providers (online and BMW). Clearly the profit margins are high for some.

He did also mention that BMW shortfall is now covering up to £25k rather than only £20k as it used to be.

The BMW website indicates that 'Shortfall' insurance (ie GAP) only covers up to a maximum £17,500. Is this a case of the website being out of date? I should call the BM and ask but I can't be bothered!

I don't know why people bother with shortfall insurance, just get a policy that gives you a new car + extras in first year if you have a write-off/its nicked. In 2nd year, who cares - you had a 2 year old car, they give you the money for market value of a 2 year old car and you go out and buy a 2 year old car. ?????

As far as I'm concerned its designed to make you BETTER off than you were in the event of an accident/theft. In that case you may as well go out and buy several hundred quids worth of lottery tickets, there's a bigger prize and probably just as much odds that you'll actually use it (ok perhaps that's a bit of an exageration).

Just had the Business manager on the phone, fortunately my finance which was agreed back in early July is not affected by the rise in Interest rates and payments remain unchanged.

Glad to hear it. I was in the same situation 3 years ago with the Z4, when the Business Manager was banging away on the calculator trying to work out how good a deal I had got, and how much they would lose out, since I also arranged the finance about four months before (and there was a slight rise in interest rates!)

I don't know why people bother with shortfall insurance, just get a policy that gives you a new car + extras in first year if you have a write-off/its nicked. In 2nd year, who cares - you had a 2 year old car, they give you the money for market value of a 2 year old car and you go out and buy a 2 year old car. ?????

As far as I'm concerned its designed to make you BETTER off than you were in the event of an accident/theft. In that case you may as well go out and buy several hundred quids worth of lottery tickets, there's a bigger prize and probably just as much odds that you'll actually use it (ok perhaps that's a bit of an exageration).

The BMW website indicates that 'Shortfall' insurance (ie GAP) only covers up to a maximum £17,500. Is this a case of the website being out of date? I should call the BM and ask but I can't be bothered!

I got him to print out all the terms and conditions before I'd even consider looking at a quote. It definately states it's for up to 25k.

I don't know why people bother with shortfall insurance, just get a policy that gives you a new car + extras in first year if you have a write-off/its nicked. In 2nd year, who cares - you had a 2 year old car, they give you the money for market value of a 2 year old car and you go out and buy a 2 year old car. ?????

As far as I'm concerned its designed to make you BETTER off than you were in the event of an accident/theft. In that case you may as well go out and buy several hundred quids worth of lottery tickets, there's a bigger prize and probably just as much odds that you'll actually use it (ok perhaps that's a bit of an exageration).

I agree though it depends on personal cirucmstance and acceptance of risk. In the first year it's pretty much a complete waste of time as your insurers would replace the car with new. All it covers is your excess (policy provider dependant). In later years it is a little more meaningful.

If you're tied into something like a PCP and effectively don't have any equity in the car then you could get into the situation of having the car witten off, and getting nothing back. In this case you could argue that it would at least get you back into a car.

What it is more like is a lottery ticket for the third and fourth years in case the worst happens. Clearly if you change every couple of years it's a complete waste. If you change less frequently, then maybe you accept the price as safeguard against the risk. It's all personal choice.

Not necessarily...worth checking policy wording. I found mine wouldn't, or if they did, wouldn't include the 5k+ of options in that. I found one that would. Many will just give "market value" which even in first year is a considerable chunk less than new cost.

I hadn't thought of the excess in the first year, but then it is probably a money swap pound for pound with the amount of the premium they would charge for Gap insurance.

You mention risk a few times, but this doesn't seem to be about protecting risk to me. "I'd like to protect against the risk of my 3 year old car being stolen/written off by buying a policy that replaces it with a new one" ?! FULLY COMP INSURANCE is about risk, this is about getting you to a better position than you were in when you had the accident/theft. Generally insurance doesn't do "betterment" but these policies seem to be just that.

To me they are a bit like extended warranties.... generally don't touch them with a barge pole as they are a money making scheme.

Not necessarily...worth checking policy wording. I found mine wouldn't, or if they did, wouldn't include the 5k+ of options in that. I found one that would. Many will just give "market value" which even in first year is a considerable chunk less than new cost.

I hadn't thought of the excess in the first year, but then it is probably a money swap pound for pound with the amount of the premium they would charge for Gap insurance.

You mention risk a few times, but this doesn't seem to be about protecting risk to me. "I'd like to protect against the risk of my 3 year old car being stolen/written off by buying a policy that replaces it with a new one" ?! FULLY COMP INSURANCE is about risk, this is about getting you to a better position than you were in when you had the accident/theft. Generally insurance doesn't do "betterment" but these policies seem to be just that.

To me they are a bit like extended warranties.... generally don't touch them with a barge pole as they are a money making scheme.

I still agree

Your insurers will give you a 'market value' for your car.

GAP insurance is founded on a 'false' premise of a car as an asset with a fixed value.

So you buy a £30K car and if it's written off at any stage during the term of the policy you get a £30K to replace it.

However the reality is that a car depreciates from the moment you buy it. If you ran your personal life as you would a business, then you wouldn't have it on your balance sheet at invoice value. Instead you would be writing it down on a regular basis.

If you get £30K insurance settlement for a car with a 'balance sheet' value of £20K then you are technically adding £10k to your 'profit and loss' account.

Return to Invoice cover is more like a lottery that pays out if your car is written off than genuine insurance. It's also expensive.

It's nothing to do with tolerance to risk, because there is no true financial risk without gap insurance.

However, it's not as bad as extended warranties ... which really make my blood boil.